Media News

Magazine Retailer with a Difference Expands

Stocking over 4,000 different magazine titles, Mag Nation, known for its maverick approach to magazine retailing, has just opened their first store in Sydney joining others in Melbourne and Auckland.

The new Sydney store, situated at 155 King Street, Newtown, continues the unusual philosophy of encouraging customers to browse magazines and linger in store by offering two floors of wall-to-wall magazines complete with comfy seating and free wifi. The internal café within the Newtown store is set to open just prior to Christmas.

Mag Nation co-founder Sahil Merchant explains, "I'm not a supermarket people walk into because they have to. People come to Mag Nation because they enjoy it and I have to be a better option for them than the other things they could be doing with their time." By offering the value added benefits of comfy couches, free wifi, coffee and unlimited reading time Merchant likes Mag Nation to be viewed as more of an experience rather than a store you go in to, get what you need and then leave.

Nothing could reflect this relaxed attitude more than the Mag Nation philosophy of, "Everything at Mag Nation can be touched, felt and browsed.... except for our staff."

Already, the Newtown store has created significant buzz amongst Sydney's magazine aficionados. Catering for both mainstream and very specialised magazine tastes, Mag Nation has also recently expanded into other product categories. "We asked our customers and loyal supporters what more we could do for them, and designer stationery, visual culture books and niche t-shirts came back high on the list of things they wanted to see from us", said Merchant.

Mag Nation is looking to expand into other cities around Australia, but for now, Merchant says he wants to focus on fitting into the Sydney retail landscape and also building his online business. "We have a fantastic website which offers online magazine subscriptions to both local and international titles, but until now, very few people have ever heard of Mag Nation the retailer, let alone www.magnation.com. The new Sydney store should help us get our brand and very unique retail experience in front of a whole different audience, which will hopefully also translate into more online awareness".